Woolworth's UK

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Today, Woolworth's UK has gone into administration and that threatens 815 stores and 10's of thousands of jobs. It's hardly surprising. Although, it's years since I have been in one, even then, it was hard to see what kind of store they were trying to be. And of course, they had to face the rising dominance of Tesco, Asda and others.

Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory reform is said to have been in contact with the company on Wednesday, to ensure that if it went into administration, it would minimise the anxiety to its employees. What kind of Tom Fool remark is that? He really should stick to taking holidays on luxury yachts owned by Russian billionaires. Indeed, perhaps he could ask his Russian buddies to bail out Woolies. After all their £385m of debt would be fly shit to them.

But it's sad day. When I was a kid, it seemed have everything you could wish for but then we didn't wish for Nintendo, Microwaves, Stainless Steel saucepans then. It was cheap and that was important and it had Pick n'Mix sweets (candy). The stores seemed bright and they were always full in those days.

I won't miss them: I've moved on. And that is true of millions of others which is why they are on their way out.